Client Stories

Client Spotlight: Collaboration Knows No Boundaries

Thousands of educational institutions from around the world rely on Blackboard Collaborate to reach their academic, administrative, and financial goals through more engaging, interactive, and cost-effective collaboration. We've turned the spotlight on six innovative clients to show you how they are building a better education experience.

Good teaching yields good teachers. That’s the fundamental tenet of the NIU faculty development program. For more than a decade, it has pioneered ways to train instructors to use tools and techniques that engage students and boost their success. These tools are increasingly interactive, and so are the techniques. For NIU, that toolbox is packed with Blackboard Learn, Blackboard Collaborate, and Blackboard Mobile solutions.

Since Blackboard Collaborate web conferencing is based on Elluminate architecture, Wimba Classroom customers had to learn a new user interface and a new administration system as well. After some careful and thoughtful planning, several schools reported having a much easier upgrade experience than anticipated. Northern Illinois University, Adventist University of Health Science, and University of Arkansas for Medical Science share their stories.

Over the past three years, a grass roots project at Blue Mountain Community College (BMCC) has grown to deliver online classroom instruction, tutoring, and advising via Blackboard Collaborate for thousands of students. Now the significant cost savings and impressive growth rate of Blackboard Collaborate at BMCC has resulted in the platform being implemented at all 17 of Oregon’s community colleges.

Pennsylvania Virtual Charter School Students Excel at STEM with Blackboard Collaborate

For PA Virtual, Blackboard Collaborate has been instrumental in bridging the geographical gap between faculty and students who live throughout the state. Despite having more than 100 fifth and sixth graders in the school’s STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) program, 100% of the students participated with a 100% rating in overall satisfaction.

If a school reported a 75% success rate (the percentage of students that pass their courses) in a state whose average success rate hovers around the 65% mark, that should be considered a success, right? Well, what if another school had a success rate of 88.8%? That would sound almost too good to be true. But in this case, fantasy is a reality as the South Carolina Virtual School Program (SCVSP) has far exceeded state averages, thanks in large part to a full curriculum of highly-engaging and effective online courses powered by Blackboard Collaborate.

Blackboard Collaborate: The Swiss Army Knife of Synchronous Learning Technology

When a cost-saving crisis at the University of Salford in the UK inadvertently opened opportunities for massive expansion of online capabilities, learning technologist Denis Mc Grath developed an approach that increased scalability and revenue opportunities on a global level. This presentation showcases s variety of Mc Grath's projects at institutions throughout Europe. Now an academic advisor at Unitec Institute of Technology in New Zealand, he plans to use his proven approach to continue to build efficient, innovative online programmes.

For the University of Salford and others, Blackboard Collaborate became a tool for just about any situation. I am looking forward to applying my approach to new synchronous online programmes at Unitec.